Bb. Pilipinas not the end for controversial beauties

Disqualified Bb. Pilipinas ’09 candidate Sandra Seifert, former Bb. Pilipinas World Janina San Miguel eye Miss Philippines Earth.

Let me start this column with an  honest-to-goodness declaration that I am very much contented with the outcome of the recently-concluded Bb. Pilipinas ’09 pageant. With the newest batch of queens—Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Pamela Bianca Manalo, Bb. Pilipinas-International Melody Gerbasch and Bb. Pilipinas-World Marie Ann Umali—it wouldn’t be surprising if we would win an international crown (or crowns?) this year. All three are beautiful and very promising especially Manalo, who stands 5’10 tall, and that with a little body toning, she’ll surely be a hit in the Bahamas!

Let me also share that my very good friend Chicoy Tomol, the manager of the Models Association of Cebu, has long accepted the results of the pageant held at the Araneta Coliseum, and has learned a few important things on what to do and not to do when he sends another candidate to the country’s most prestigious pageant next year. Cebuana candidates Mai Honorio and Stephanie Senires are very much okay, in fact, Steph’s family welcomed her with a party when she came home from Manila three days after the pageant. Besides, if she wants to, she can join the pageant again because she’s only 22 years old. So, everybody’s happy—no regrets, no bitterness!

BPCI IN TROUBLE

Even if the annual search is over, don’t expect the issues hounding the organizers to be over. At least, not yet. First off, 1982 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Maria Isabel Lopez cried foul over an “injustice” she claimed she experienced on pageant night. According to Lopez in an interview with ABS-CBN’s SNN, she did not get an invitation to the pageant, but being a previous winner she asked for complimentary tickets. She was then told that every ticket was already given out that she just had to buy her own ticket. But a co-beauty queen whom she did not name (Lolit Solis in her column in PangMasa identified that co-beauty queen as 1969 Miss Universe Gloria Diaz) gave her a ticket. But when she got to the venue, she said she was rudely ordered to leave because she had no invitation and that she was sitting on 1970 Miss International Aurora Pijuan’s chair (Pijuan was the second Filipina to win Miss International after Gemma Araneta who won the title in 1964). It is for this reason that she’s demanding “justice” for having been denied the courtesy befitting someone who once represented the country to the Miss Universe pageant.

I was still four years old when Lopez won Bb. Pilipinas-Universe in 1982, but I learned that she was not favored to win and that her victory was controversial. There were moves then to dethrone her since she was a sexy model, and this is supposedly against the rules and regulations of BPCI.

This is where the second issue against BPCI comes in, following the disqualification of model Sandra Seifert from the pageant just three days before the coronation night. While it’s true that BPCI rules and regulations specify that candidates should not have posed for any men’s magazine, I don’t think it was fair to Sandra to have been allowed to participate in pre-pageant activities only to be served with a disqualification letter at a time when forecasts were pointing at her as the most fitting candidate to become the country’s rep in the Miss Universe competition. If Sandra’s interview with SNN last Tuesday is to be believed, wherein she claimed she never hid the fact that she posed for FHM in October 2007 to the organizers, then she should have been denied participation in the pageant right away. But why was she appointed as Candidate No. 13 (unlucky number 13, indeed!) and then given the exit papers after going through the pre-pageant rigors? This sounds fishy to me and BPCI should clear things out.  

What I don’t understand is why candidates are prohibited from posing for men’s magazines when they are pa raded before the general public in their swimsuits as part of the pre-pageant activities? Why not parade them in Filipiniana or gowns instead? I think BPCI should reconsider its rule with regards to girls who have posed in men’s magazines depending on how the pictorial comes out. In Sandra’s FHM pictures, there was nothing erotic or titillating in there. She was actually wearing a swimsuit. So, what makes Sandra’s FHM exposure any different from the actual swimsuit competition and even from the press presentation that also features the candidates in their swimsuits? 

COUNTDOWN TO MISS EARTH

At any rate, with the Bb. Pilipinas done, beauty experts and pageant fanatics are now focusing on the upcoming Miss Philippines Earth whose coronation night is set on May 10. Our very own Karla Henry is the reigning Miss Earth queen and the first Asian to have won the title in the pageant’s eight-year history. This adds pressure on the upcoming candidates because they will have big shoes to fill in.

As early as now, rumors are swirling that Sandra is joining as Bacolod City’s representative. And Lorraine Schuck, who helms Miss Philippines Earth and Miss Earth, declared in an interview on TV Patrol last week that if Sandra qualifies in the screening there is no reason why she would not be taken in. Another rumor is that resigned Bb. Pilipinas-World 2008 Janina San Miguel will also give Miss Earth a shot. It looks like it’s going to be a battle of disqualified and resigned Bb. Pilipinas beauties. Exciting! And don’t forget that Karla and 2007 Miss Philippines Earth Jeanne Hearn were also former Bb. Pilipinas candidates, who failed to make it to the semi-finals.

Yesterday, a Cebuana chinita model, who belongs to ADModels, a modeling outfit under another good friend of mine, designer Dexter Alazas, left for Manila for the Miss Earth-Philippines screening. Will Karla’s successor be another ADModel from Cebu? Keep posted for more details of our representative whom I will name when she will be taken in as official candidate. The formal presentation of this year’s Miss Earth-Philippines candidates will be made after Holy Week.

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